Fuga da Seattle

Ever find yourself down in the dumps about life in general, and then happen upon an obscure movie that just for the moment makes you feel alright? Me neither. I totally recommend this movie if your in the mood for some brainless fun. Gotta love the On the Road pics that focus on friendship, love, drugs and the other nameless joys you quit pursuing as soon as your hair started turning gray. Selma Blair for President!

This is a well-acted and perfectly cast movie about a bunch of people on the outskirts of life whose mistakes carry them in the same direction: Seattle. You may not feel deeply enlightened when it's over, but you will have a bunch of laughs on the way. I don't know what happened to this film... it just slipped through the cracks and so everyone passes it off as uninteresting, but I rather thought it was one of those overlooked jewels you are glad to have discovered. The characters are eminently likable and have those appropriate, somewhat subdued emotional journeys that give the film it's real direction. Without a doubt worth the rent.

I've seen the DVD box for Highway sitting on the shelf at my local video store for ages and I've always passed, opting for something else. One day my best friend suggested hiring it, and I thought why not, I wasn't going to hire it any other time. At first glance it looks like your typical teen-targeted product-placement-riddled road movie. Upon watching it, there is much more to this film than its average cover art lets on.

Jared Leto is perfect as the hapless pill-popping "God Of F***" Jack Hayes, and Jake Gyllenhaal is equally suited to the role of Pilot, his stoner child-hood pal. Their performances are commendable, as they generate a feeling of genuine camaraderie between each other. John C. McGinley and Jeremy Piven both come out of nowhere with excellent performances as over-the-top drug dealers. And Selma Blair almost fades into the background; she's not a bad actress but doesn't really do anything to make her performances stand out. The story isn't five star material, but it doesn't have to be, and that's where the movie succeeds, it doesn't try to take itself too seriously.

Some of the previous reviews for Highway on this site have been particularly scathing, which is fair enough seeing as each person is entitled to their own opinion, but for people who have yet to see it I suggest giving it a chance before pre-forming an opinion. I personally thought it was a fun, fast paced and unpredictable road movie, much better than some other trash released in '02 (e.g. the laughably lame "The Tuxedo", the feeble Mummy series spin-off sword-in-sandal outing "The Scorpion King", and the pretentiously boring "The Hours" to name a few).

After reading the previous reviews, one thing is obvious, the reviewers couldn't connect with the film, and just didn't appreciate it for what it was...fun and entertaining, which is what a good film is supposed to be.

It starts off strange, then sucks, then gets good for a while, then alligator boy comes into the picture. I think Jake Glyllenhal is an awesome young talent, but he couldn't carry this. This movie was pretty well filmed and has some truly memorable scenes, but overall the dialogue was dumb and unbelievable. Also, the soundtrack should have consisted of songs from that time period instead of new punk stuff. Not horrible, but unfortunately pretty bad. 5.5/10

Count me in to the camp of people who are unable to fathom reviews of this movie that say it's a complete waste of time.

"Citizen Kane" it is certainly not. But it *is* an entertaining, fairly fresh road trip movie. Leto, Gyllenhaal, and Blair all give good performances.

I consulted the reviews on here before sitting down to catch this flick on cable late at night, and decided that I'd give it 20 minutes to prove itself either worthy of 1:45 of my time, or worthy of all the bad reviews it's picked up on here. Needless to say, I watched the whole film.

"Highway" is a decent off-beat comedy with some very memorable lines and a nice undercurrent of life-long friendship. Check it out... and, remember, "the world is divided into two groups of people-- pandas and alligator-boys." ;)

My score: 7 out of 10.